AUGUST 20 — I worry about the upcoming election in Sabah and whether the turnout will be lower than expected, due to the challenges of logistics as well as the ever looming threat of the pandemic.
Will I be voting this time around? There is a high likelihood I will not be able to fly home due to last-minute expenses that have drained my reserves.
I am also wary about being in a crowded metal enclosure for more than two hours though I know travelling within Malaysia poses less risk than in countries with a higher rate of contagion.
Many Sabahans are working in the Peninsula who, like me, will have to decide whether casting a vote will be worth the expense and the risk.
Perhaps a few years ago I would have just blithely put the trip on my credit card and resigned myself to fewer meals out for the next couple of months.
Yet this time around, with economic uncertainty and no way of knowing if the pandemic might worsen in the next couple of months, the risk makes flying back unfeasible.
It shouldn't cost so much to vote. While my family home as well as my voting station are less than an hour from the airport, many other Sabahans might need to travel further.
Why hasn't voting become easier? I understand the challenges of securing votes yet at the same time making it costly in terms of time and money is not right.
My own brother is giving up his Sabah voting privilege to instead vote in Selangor. It's sad but he earns around half of what I take home so if I have financial concerns, of course he would too.
Still in times such as these where the threat of the pandemic is very real it makes no sense the Election Commission cannot figure out an alternative for voters concerned about both cost and safety.
The simplest solution would be postal votes, an option that should have been in place years ago for East Malaysians.
Logistical centres to allow voting remotely for all Malaysians are also things that need to exist especially now with crowds and travel proving risky at the moment.
I know we need to accept the fact that we will likely never return to what things used to be; we will likely have to adjust to new norms and the constant, ever-looming threat of this pandemic and future ones.
Yet if we need to adjust to new situations, why is it impossible for our election procedures and the Election Commission to adapt as well?
I am not optimistic things will change for the Sabah election as it is obvious the Election Commission currently has neither the intention nor the will to make necessary changes.
Still I hope Sabahans who have no obstacles to voting do so and the ones held back will remember the ones who failed them.
Sabahans deserve better; Malaysians deserve better. Right now though, what is obvious is we all deserve a better Election Commission and perhaps, someday we will get one that doesn't produce questionable Parliament Speakers.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
